PFTC provides hands-on training in plant functional traits ecology. On the courses, students take part on a trait-based research project and field campaign to collect and document plant functional trait data in the field. Then, the students explore these data using trait-based approaches within climate change research and ecosystem ecology. Members of the Biodiversity Change research group took part in two of the course iterations, Svalbard and South Africa.
MEB network publishes openly available global microclimate data and maps. Currently, the MEB network consists of 100.000 time series from more than 100 countries across the globe, submitted by more than a thousand data contributors. The network is building a global database of microclimate time series and associated species data for use in ecology and beyond.
Together with the MEB community we published a perspective article on the recent advances in microclimate ecology and biogeography after the first Microclimate Ecology and Biogeography conference that was held in August 2022 in Antwerp, Belgium. The second iteration was held in August 2024 in Helsinki, Finland, and the next conference will be in May 2026 in Montpellier, France.